WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a
measure Thursday that would stop government agencies from using taxpayer
funds to disguise video press releases as real news, putting the brakes
on a product Democrats call propaganda.

President Bush cautioned that some responsibility for
full disclosure rests with news outlets.

"It's deceptive to the American people if it's
not disclosed," Bush told the American Society of Newspaper Editors
on Thursday. "But it's incumbent upon people who use them to say, 'This
news clip was produced by the federal government.'"

Senators voted 98-0 to attach the measure, sponsored
by Sen. Robert Byrd (search), D-W.Va., to the $80.6 billion emergency spending
bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under it, taxpayer funds would be prohibited from being
used for prepackaged news stories unless those stories contain "clear
notification within the text or audio of the prepackaged news" that
discloses it was prepared or funded by a federal agency.

That way, said Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad
Cochran (search), R-Miss., the authors of the packages cannot be held liable
for news outlets that do not disclose the funding source on their own.

The amendment writes into law a Government Accountability
Office opinion that said the Bush administration has violated rules against
"publicity and propaganda" with releases from several agencies.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy, for example,
released a series of videos in which a narrator, sometimes identified as
"Karen Ryan," said she was "reporting" on the office's
activities. Separately, the Health and Human Services Department's Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services produced video news releases, also narrated
by "Karen Ryan," touting changes to Medicare.

The tapes were offered to local television stations
for news programs. Some stations aired the videos without identifying their
government origins.

The White House Office of Management and Budget on
March 11 countered that the GAO report "fails to recognize the distinction
between covert propaganda and purely informational video news reports."

In other action on the spending bill, the Senate voted
to:

— Prohibit military hospitals from charging soldiers
wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan for meals.

— Change the name of the death benefit given
to soldiers' families from "death gratuity" to "fallen hero
compensation."

— Provide $5 million to promote democracy
in Lebanon.

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